Alamogordo city commissioner opposes city funds for space museum

The New Mexico Museum of Space History will get a $300,000 grant from the city to upgrade its aging IMAX theater equipment.

However, the funding is contingent upon a $300,000 matching grant from the state, according to a press release issued by the museum.

District 4 Commissioner Josh Rardin voted against the measure Tuesday and said he didn't like the idea of the city providing funding to a state-run agency.

The museum falls under the state cultural affairs department and Rardin said the money the city might donate is from a loan the city has taken out from the state of New Mexico.

"The money we were using is money we went to the state and borrowed," Rardin said. "It's loan proceeds and the taxpayers of Alamogordo are paying interest on the money we just donated to the state of New Mexico. That's why I had such a huge issue with it. My feeling is let the state pay for their own building."

According to city records, the potential cash infusion would come out of the 2004 Quality of Life Bond refinancing.

Rardin said he thought the move by the city would be the first time a municipality had funded a state-run outfit.

"I feel it would be the first time in state history," Rardin said.

The upgrade is needed to replace projection equipment that has been in place since the theater was built in 1983. Without the upgrade, the theater would become obsolete within the next few years as large format film producers switch completely to digital, according to the museum.

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City records show that the upgrades to the building are expected to increase the number of visitors to the theater and museum, the end result being increased tourism dollars coming into Alamogordo.

Documents show that visitors to the museum have declined sharply in the last two decades. In 1991 and 1992, the museum averaged 200,000 vistors. Last year, there were only about 75,000.

Contact John Bear at jbear@alamogordonews.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnbearwithme